Team: X-Tracer Team Switzerland

PM Says: It's a motorcycle that imitates a car when stopped. But are training wheels enough to make consumers consider it?

Odds to Win: 20 to 1

If there's one vehicle in the competition that provoked controversy, it was the X-Tracer Team Switzerland's E-Tracer. "It's a motorcycle," one competitor says, on condition of anonymity. "I don't care that it has outriggers—it has to be ridden like a motorcycle. It's a motorcycle."

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The E-Tracer is an all-electric version of the Swiss-built MonoTracer enclosed two-­wheeler (normally powered by a BMW motorcycle engine). It substitutes a relatively small electric motor for the motorcycle engine and adds a 200-pound battery pack to achieve, the team claims, a range of over 150 miles.

If nothing else, the E-Tracer is great to watch launch. It stands still on two main wheels and two smaller wheels deployed on the outriggers. As it silently gains speed, the outriggers retract and the E-Tracer takes off like a light cycle from Tron. It's undeniably entertaining, and it sailed through the Shakedown tests.

But while the E-Tracer exploits a motorcycle's inherent advantages of a small frontal area and low rolling resistance, is it something your grandmother would be comfortable riding in? And where do you put the groceries?